tmp_2e400c932cd646dccd3ec2acdba43a25_mQf9rc.fixed.tidied

by BSmith

As he entered the night, beams of light began springing up on the grass. Five, ten, twenty. When the light faded, there stood his best Anunnaki Warriors in all their glory, without the false human disguise they so often wore.

  Enlil did not care if the humans saw. Let them, he thought. The world would be a much different place by the time the sun rose.

  Enlil let his iris flip, exposing his true reptilian eyes as he drew them over his brethren. “Warriors of Nibiru—”

  “Enlil!”

  Enlil snapped his gaze to the right. He was not surprised to see Enki walking towards him. The scientist. The weakling. Enlil hissed at him. “Your exploits have failed, brother. I know everything. And after I rip the very souls out of those Terenzios, I will deal with you.”

  Enki’s stern gaze centered on his brother. “Your knowledge comes too late. You cannot stop what has been created.”

  Enlil growled, lowly. “I can and I will.” In the blink of an eye, Enlil shed his human skin, literally. Pieces fell to the ground and turned to dust as his true form emerged, a good foot taller than his brother. “You cannot defeat me, Enki. We both know that.”

  “Physically, brother no, I cannot.” Enki motioned upwards. “But they can.”

  Enlil looked upward and his eyes widened in surprise, then narrowed with his mounting fury. The sky was suddenly full of the race of Angels. The tall, winged, disgustingly human-looking beings floated to the ground. Archangel Gabriel and Michael stood at their center. Lightning snapped and arced from Gabriel’s wings. Michael's golden chest plate gleamed. A short sword was sheathed at his waist and grim determination flashed through Michael’s eyes.

  “We need not fight, Enlil, if you would only stop this nonsense,” Michael gently implored. “Open your heart. Feel the Source. It calls to you. Your job is done, brother. Let them go.” Enlil faced Michael head on, his jaws snapping open to release his roar. The wings on his back extended like the head of a cobra and glowed a brilliant red. “I will not!” His claws flexed, growing an inch longer, their points sharper than a Hitori Hanso sword. “Get out of my way, Angel.”

  Michael’s eyes narrowed. He drew his sword and his wings burst into brilliant blue flame. “We are the guardians, and we will not falter.”

  “Then you will die,” Enlil spat. He roared a command, and the Anunnaki Warriors charged at the Angels.

  With a speed that would be unseen to a human eye, Michael charged Enlil. Enlil snarled and surged forward to meet him. As the two collided, a blinding flash of light and flame swirled around them, erupting high into the sky.

  A scientist not a warrior, Enki could do nothing but watch as the battle between Angels and Demons reflected in his sad eyes.

  §

  December 20, 2012 - 10:44 PM

  Corregiadora Ortiz

  Police Station

  “I can’t believe we’re doing this,” Shirley whispered.

  “What, you never broke anybody out of jail before?” Derek teased, but he had to admit he was pretty nervous himself. He wanted to sink even further down in the car when Abe, Robert, and five Cadre walked into the police station.

  Grams was napping fitfully in her cell when the angry bang of a gunshot woke her. Climbing off her cot, she walked over to the bars, curling her elegantly aged fingers around the rusting metal. “What’s going on?” she demanded when the police officer walked up to her carrying his gun. He raised the weapon silently, pointing the muzzle at her.

  Grams’ eyes widened, but before the flair of panic and fear could fully grip her, she was gasping in shock as the man crumbled to the floor.

  “Hi, Grams.” Abe smiled and set the fire extinguisher down.

  Grams blinked as realization set in, and then a shaky laugh escaped her. When Abe opened the cell door, she seized his face between her hands and gave him a big smooch. “The gods love you, because I know I certainly do. Phil and Steve are…”

  “Dead.” Robert said from down the hall. “We have got to go.”

  “Oh, no.” Grams looked pained. Now she knew what those gunshots had been.

  Abe took Grams arm. “C’mon, we’re on a deadline.”

  §

  “Derek?”

  “Hmm?”

  “Do you hear that?”

  Derek peered over the steering wheel just as Abe, Robert, Grams and the Cadre came out of the station. Suddenly, the glare of headlights illuminated their figures, accompanied by a crescendo of furious shouts. “Oh, shit.”

  The soldiers leaning out of the open jeep started firing. The Cadre swept in front of Abe, Grams and Robert and fired back, chaos erupting as bullets from two sides ripped through the air.

  “Start the car, Derek!” Shirley yelled.

  Her shout spurred Derek into motion. Hand shaking, he twisted the key. Attempting not to panic, he forgot to keep his foot on the clutch and the car stalled, lurching forward. He got it right the second time, and the engine coughed to life. Shirley threw open her door, grabbing her grandmother, and Derek shrieked when he heard the plink of bullets slamming into the side of his door.

  Three Cadre dropped to the ground, dead by the time Abe shoved Robert into the car. The remaining two squeezed in after them. “Haul ass, Derek!” Abe shouted.

  “Seatbelts!” Derek slammed on the gas, speeding down the narrow dirt road.

  “Where’s that teleport thing, Robert?” Abe spared him a quick glance and slapped a fresh clip into his handgun.

  “I’m on it!” Robert pulled the shiny, triangular device out of his vest pocket and started pressing buttons.

  “What teleport thing?” Grams looked bewildered. A second later, both she and Shirley screamed when back windshield shattered.

  “Keep your heads down!” Abe shouted, then stuck his arm out the window and fired back.

  “I’ve got it, get ready!” Robert pressed a button, and in the next instant a brilliant flash of light surrounded them, propelling them forward down an ethereal tunnel. When the world came back into focus, the car was facing the ancient Mayan site.

  It wasn’t an ideal place to bring a moving vehicle though. Derek’s eyes widened as he saw the thick, road less jungle looming in front of them. “Oh, shit, hang on!” Derek slammed on the brakes, and the car hit a tree with a little less speed. The airbags deployed, a thin cloud of smoke hissed out of the mangled hood. The doors creaked a little as the team climbed out of the car.

  “Thanks for not killing us just then.” Abe slapped Derek on the shoulder.

  Derek swallowed. Eyes wide and breathing hard, he nodded absently. “Yeah. Yeah, no problem.”

  “Everybody okay?” Robert looked around at the group. Shirley was hugging her grandmother, but nodded over her shoulder at him. “Okay, no time to waste. Let’s get the equipment out and get down there.”

  §

  December 20, 2012 - 10:44 PM

  Switzerland

  CERN

  Being teleported really fucked with one’s sense of vertigo, Lucien realized as he and his team appeared in the snow covered lawn in front of the CERN building. Lucien took a quick second to get his bearings, then pressed the button on his stopwatch. They had ten minutes to get inside the building, and arm the ELMINT. Pulling out his gun, Lucien motioned for his team to follow, and they sprinted past several heavily armed, patrolling security squads, literally unseen.

  The building that housed the ELMINT was dome shaped and sat behind the main CERN laboratory. Three armed guards stood in front of the door, smoking and chatting. The Cadre knocked them out and took their radios.

  “You two, wait outside. Nobody gets in here until we arm it. You two, with me,” Lucien whispered. Taking a deep breath, Lucien slowly pushed the door to the building open, just enough that he could slide through it. ELMINT resembled a giant telescope. It had a parabolic shaped head that sat on top of a circular tower made of metal with wires wrapped around pipes of steel. The giant diamond shaped crystal was enclosed in a glass container in the center. It stretched up three levels and a st
eel platform slinkied around it. On the second level, two separate rows of computer terminals took up space. A dozen men and women in white lab coats worked in the area, obviously getting ready for the night’s events. Two guards stood at the lower level, and Lucien knocked them both out with the strike of his gun to the back of their heads. Lucien’s men shot the other two guards. It was only then that the scientists realized something was wrong. Pressing a button on his thermoptic device, Lucien flickered into sight, grabbed one of the scientists by the back of his lab coat, and pushed him towards the door, shouting at the rest and wildly brandishing his gun.

  “Step away from the terminals! You all up there, ground floor, right now! Right fucking now or I’ll put a bullet in you! Move! Move!” Academics, not soldiers, the scientists released startled sounds, threw up their hands, and began filing down the metal staircase to the waiting Cadre.

  “Keep ’em quiet,” Lucien said to his team, and went sprinting up to the third floor. He pressed a button on the railing, and a plank stretched out over to the ELMINT, stopping in front of the crystal. Lucien jogged across it, then snapped open the keypad. The keys were marked with symbols—the Anunnaki language—not numbers. He paused to recall the code, and then typed it in.

  A green light flashed, and the glass panel surrounding the crystal opened. Lucien swung his pack around and pulled out a brick of C-4.

  “Don’t move, Lucien.”

  Lucien froze. From below, he heard warning shouts, then gunfire. Goddammit, he thought. Frowning, he turned around to face a coldly triumphant Amadeo.

  “Walk forward, slowly,” Amadeo ordered.

  Narrowing his eyes, Lucien obeyed, walking across the plank to face his cousin, who backed up a step. “Set them to the side, right there.” Amadeo motioned with tilt of his head. “Slowly.”

  Lucien hesitated. He could see the rapidly declining numbers on his stopwatch. His mind worked frantically for a way out as he bent down and set both the explosive and detonator on the ground where Amadeo had indicated.

  “Guns, too,” Amadeo said, evenly.

  Gritting his teeth, Lucien pulled out both his guns and set them on the ground. Amadeo walked forward, keeping his gaze on Lucien as he kicked the guns behind him. Then, Amadeo set his gun down on the railing. “I’m really going to enjoy this.” Without hesitating, he punched Lucien in the face. Lucien stumbled backwards, and Amadeo advanced with a quick assault of his fists. Lucien tasted blood on the third punch. The fourth made his vision swim and the world lurch beneath his feet.

  C’mon, Lucien, my eighty year old sister can block a punch better than that. Forcing himself to focus, when Amadeo swung again, Lucien smacked his cousin’s wrist, then slammed his forearm into Amadeo’s mouth. Amadeo’s head jerked back and Lucien clapped his hands against Amadeo's ears, disorienting him. Amadeo grabbed at his head, and Lucien kicked the tender spot of Amadeo’s knee. Amadeo gave a shout, and as he fell Lucien punched Amadeo near his temple. Lucien watched him collapse, just as his stopwatch began frantically beeping.

  The ceiling to the ELMINT building began to slide apart, and Lucien jerked his gaze upwards. “Shit,” he muttered. Whirling around, he dashed over to the C-4 and snatched up the brick. Running back across the plank, he placed the bomb against the crystal. He hit a button, and the case slid shut as the machine’s satellite head began tilting backwards to aim at the exposed sky.

  Lucien went to punch a button on the detonator, just to realize he hadn’t grabbed it. He whirled around to see Amadeo standing, holding it in one hand, his gun pointed at Lucien with the other.

  “You failed, Lucien,” Amadeo sneered. “But considering it’s you, that’s no shocker.”

  Lucien lifted his hands halfway in gesture of surrender, but his gray eyes were mocking. “The nice thing about C-4 is how it reacts to intense heat. I’m thinking, when that thing charges up to fire, that crystal is going to get pretty hot.”

  Amadeo’s eyes widened and his gaze jerked from Lucien to the device just behind him. “No.”

  Taking advantage of Amadeo’s distraction, Lucien charged him, getting a hand around the gun and sending a shot harmlessly into the air. As the two men collided, the ELMINT engaged its activation sequence, and the Atlantean crystal began charging in preparation to fire.

  Outside, a monstrous pillar of fire and smoked stained the sky when the ELMINT exploded.

  Chapter 21

  “Find out just what people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue until they are resisted with either words or blows, or both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”

  - Frederick Douglass

  December 20, 2012 - 11:00 PM

  New Orleans, LA

  Gallier Hall

  Vasco arrived in New Orleans at a moment of sudden panic. Just a minute before, power lines had suddenly erupted in showers of dangerous sparks, then shut down, thrusting the city into darkness. High above, where the human eye couldn’t see, the Global Satellite Communications system was a sitting duck to the awesome power of the sun, and one by one, each satellite had been fried by the peaking solar storms.

  Vasco stood behind a tree in Lafayette Park, directly across from Gallier Hall, watching. The thermoptic device attached to his belt kept him hidden. Gallier Hall was a beautiful example of Greek revival architecture. The building had once housed New Orleans’ City Hall, currently it was rented out for high profile parties, events, or the Brotherhood, whenever they needed it. The Roshaniya and select members of their followers were inside the building, but the blackout had rudely interrupted their party, and now they were as confused and concerned as everyone else.

  St. Charles Avenue had been blocked off from Podryas Street to Girod. Local police, and scattered military watched the perimeters. More prevalent were the personal security of the Brotherhood, serious-faced, plain-suited men that resembled the Secret Service. After the power went out, they stood in small groups, conversing with each other. Because radios no longer worked, they couldn’t get a hold of anyone with authority, and they weren’t sure what to do.

  Vasco’s mouth subtly curved. The mere fact that the city was suddenly on a power and communications blackout meant Lucien had accomplished his mission, though Vasco had never doubted it. He took a moment to savor his brother’s victory. When that moment pass-ed, it was time for his. He touched his Sirian headset.

  “Compound, come in. This is SVT. I’m going in.”

  “Roger that, SVT.”

  Vasco removed the device, folded it shut, and tucked it into the inside pocket of his fatigues. He pulled the night vision goggles from the top of his head down over his eyes and removed his 9mm. It had been fitted with a silencer and laser scope. Deftly avoiding brushing against any security guards, Vasco walked up the stone steps and into the building.

  Tony’s intel stated that the Roshaniya would be on the third floor. Inside, the building it was pitch black, except for the sway of security guards’ flashlights over the well-dressed elite. A noisy, tense hum filled the air, and over the guests’ voices he could hear the stern, but shaky, voices of their security guards, asking them to remain calm and in their perspective reception halls. Easing past them all, Vasco went to the staircase. He was halfway up it when he paused. Caesar stood at the top, waving his flashlight over the crowd below, his gaze searching—and knowing. Vasco’s hand flexed around the handle of his gun, but he resisted the urge to shoot Caesar right then and there. He pacified his ego with patience and walked right past his nemesis.

  At the top of the stairs, Vasco made a right. The ballroom, where the six members of the Roshaniya and one hundred of their devoted followers were, was at the end of the hallway. There were three doors to get into it. Vasco walked over to the one in the middle and cracked it open. He could hear their raised voices from within.

  “Where are the gods?”

  “I thought we had
a device that would prevent this?”

  “How we will get in touch with them?”

  “Keep quiet, all of you. The cars will be brought around soon, and we’ll retreat to the underground bases.”

  Vasco slipped in through the door, in front of a small group of men, and silently closed it behind him. A security guard flashed a light in his direction, but of course, saw nothing. Vasco eased to the right of the doorway and watched the guard walk over to the door, open it back up, peek out into the hallway, and then shrug and close it again. Vasco stepped up onto an empty chair to give him a better vantage point and line of sight. Most of the men in the room wore their traditional ceremonial robes. The power outage had interrupted them at the beginning of Cremation of Care ritual, and aside from the illuminating beam of the flashlights, the eerie glow of candles provided some light for the room. Vasco adjusted the zoom feature on his goggles and began searching the crowd. Having memorized the faces of the men he was to kill, they were not hard to locate. They were where he thought they would be, standing around the giant owl statue that had been positioned in the corner of the room.